Chillin' Wit' Mitch Williams, former Phillies pitcher

Chillin' Wit' is a regular Monday feature of the Daily News that spotlights a name in the news away from the job.

THERE'S NO such thing as a lazy Sunday when the sun's out and you're retired Phillies relief pitcher Mitch Williams.

On this Sunday, "Wild Thing" is in his Medford, N.J., back yard, which has a batting cage, a volleyball net and a trampoline for his active family: wife Irene, 44; sons Damon, 25, Mitch Jr., 19, Dallas, 12, and Declan, 11; and daughter Nikola, 18.

As they all play volleyball, Williams says, "This is my whole life, in this yard." Irene had talked him into two more children after the first three - he adopted her son Damon - and, he says: "I would have had four more. I had no idea how fast it was going to go."

Dressed in black Nikes, a black Under Armour jersey tank and corresponding shorts, Williams, 50, has an agenda: Fix some issues in the batting cage he built from a set a few years ago; throw batting practice for Declan; give him batting tips while pitching, seated, from a bucket full of baseballs; and make sure one of the other four children videotapes said practice for later analysis.

"Stand tall," Williams tells Declan. "Why are you looking at me? You should be looking at the ball."

A few swings and misses later, Williams deadpans, "Wow, you suck."

But Declan improves with each passing minute. He gets a piece of the ball, and his swing is much better, earning props from dad.

Williams' passion for coaching kids has given him some problems. He was fired by the MLB Network after Deadspin reported on his alleged misconduct last May during a youth baseball tournament in Maryland. He was ejected from the game.

He filed suits in September against the network and Gawker Media, publisher of Deadspin, a sports-news gossip site. He charges breach of contract, wrongful termination and defamation in the MLB Network suit and defamation in the Gawker filing.

"All the people who accuse me . . . are nameless, faceless people," Williams says.

"It's a horrible thing," says Irene. "Our life has been absolutely turned upside down. I don't know how people sleep at night."

Mitch had some sleepless nights after giving up a walkoff home run to Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays in the sixth game of the 1993 World Series, which gave the Blue Jays a world championship over the Phillies.

But he says of his current legal battles that he'd gladly "lose a World Series game a day for this to go away."

Since the filing of the suits, he says, he's been frustrated because "I can't talk about it. I can't defend myself." Williams also had to shut down the baseball team, Jersey Wild, because of what was being said. "We decided to take away any chance for people to say things that weren't true," he says.

"I know when it's all said and done, my name will be restored to what it was."

The lawsuits are not shutting down his life. Producer Wilson Surratt is shopping a reality show centered around Williams coaching kids. And Surratt is looking into producing a docu series based on his life, Williams says.

Williams believes that he was born to be in baseball.

"My only real knowledge in life is what it takes to play at that level. And breaking things down, analyzing the game," he says. "I have a photographic memory when it comes to baseball."

- Regina Medina